Fathomless Guardian
by katarvilla
Summary: Team 7 finds an injured girl on their way back from Wave.  They take her to Konoha and try to help her uncover her memories and the secrets she carries.


Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. At all. Sad really. However the character Arisa is all mine, though I might be inclined to loan her out if you ask nicely. ("HEY!")

Summary: Naruto-tachi are on their way back from Wave when they come across a severly injured girl. They take her back to Konoha with them and as she regains her memory they find she is more closely connected to them than they thought. Strange things seem to happen around her and she will become more important to them than they ever thought possible.

Naruto and Sasuke were arguing again. Well actually, Naruto was yelling at Sasuke, who was pretty much ignoring him except for the occasional comment of "dobe" and Sakura was alternating between yelling at Naruto for yelling at Sasuke and trying to flirt with Sasuke. Kakashi sighed behind his mask and his book. He knew he should be glad that they had all recovered from the battle with Zabuza and Haku but after a couple of hours of this every day since they left Wave, he couldn't help but wish that the quiet had lasted a bit longer. They were still two days journey out of Konoha.

In an effort to distract himself from his team of genin (Kami tell me we were never this bad were we Arashi-sensei?) he scanned his surroundings intently. He caught the faint scent of blood just as Naruto loudly yelled "What is that?!" while pointing to something ahead of them and a little off the path. Whatever it was, it wasn't moving much and Kakashi sensed nothing suspicious so they approached carefully to find that it was a young woman with long blond hair a shade darker than Naruto's. She was dressed as a civilian and had several wounds that were slowly bleeding out. Verifying that she was truly unconscious, Kakashi turned her onto her back and carefully examined her for other injuries and found that she had a cracked rib and possible internal injuries in addition to her many bruises and cuts.

"What happened to her?" asked Sasuke in a soft voice.

"She looks like she was beaten." commented Naruto in a similarly soft voice. Kakashi glanced toward them and saw Sasuke look at Naruto and then back to the woman. Naruto was looking at the woman with a great deal of empathy, which was probably what was confusing Sasuke and even Sakura.

"We need to tend to her wounds before we move her." said Kakashi as he took off his pack and started getting out the basic medical supplies that he carried with him. "Some of them will have to wait until we get back to Konoha. It looks like she might have some internal injuries."

"Is there anything we can do to help sensei?" asked Sakura. Sasuke and Naruto looked at Kakashi as well indicating their willingness. They seem to be willing to be to lay their rivalry aside completely for the moment in order to help this woman, noted Kakashi. Maybe there was still hope for his team.

"Let's set up camp here for tonight . By the time we treat her wounds and are ready to keep moving it would be near nightfall anyway. There should be a stream near here. Collect firewood and some water and set up camp." They hurried to follow his orders and Kakashi turned to the task of tending to the young woman's wounds. The three genin had finished their tasks and when Kakashi asked for a bowl of water they took it as their cue that it was okay to approach.

"How is she?" asked Naruto.

"Sakura could you help me get the rest of the blood off her?" asked Kakashi before answering Naruto's question. "She has several deep cuts and it looks as though she has been out here for a while so she has lost a large amount of blood. She also has a cracked rib and a fever." he answered as Sakura and he worked to clean her a little. She had a finely boned face and gently arched brows. Her eyes opened as he was wiping her face and he noticed that she had blue/green eyes that gave Naruto's a run for their money. She blinked at them and tried to sit up but stopped abruptly with a hiss of pain.

"Careful, you have quite a few injuries." said Kakashi as he helped her sit up against the tree they had found her under.

"Who are you?" she asked after he had backed off slightly.

"I'm Hatake Kakashi and this is Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, and Haruno Sakura." answered Kakashi for the group.

"I'm . . . Arisa." she answered as if unsure. "You're shinobi?"

"Yep!" declared Naruto proudly.

"How did get injured?" asked Sakura.

"I don't remember." Arisa answered

"Where are you from?" tried Kakashi.

"I…don't remember." Arisa answered slowly, starting to become more disturbed as she discovered the extent of her memory loss.

"What can you remember?" asked Sasuke

"…red and black…white mists…and…fire?…"Arisa answered her voice tapering off.

"Well, since you can't remember where you're from we'll just take you back to Konoha with us. We can get you proper medical treatment there." said Kakashi.

"Thank you." Naruto then decided that this was too serious.

"Ne, ne could we eat dinner now?"

"Dobe, is your stomach all you think of?"

"Don't call me that Sasuke-teme!"

"Don't yell at Sasuke-kun like that Naruto!"

"But Sakura-chaaan!"

"Are they always like this?" asked Arisa quietly with a small smile.

"I do my best to tune them out." Kakashi answered. Arisa laughed at this getting the genin's attention again.

All three of them blushing out of embarrassment.

"We'll eat now and then set up the rotation for the watch."

They talked as they ate with Naruto keeping Arisa occupied by talking a mile a minute about all the great things in Konoha and about Iruka-sensei and asking about her life but she remembered little of it. Sakura would butt in with facts when she felt Naruto was embellishing too much. Sasuke and Kakashi mostly watched and listened. Then they all went to sleep with Arisa insisting that she would be fine as she was, it wasn't too cold out, after all this was Fire country wasn't it? and the others, especially Naruto, insisting even more that it was too cold and she should at least take his jacket since she didn't have a sleeping bag. She finally gave in being overcome by Naruto's stubbornness and the logic from the rest of the team.

Sakura's Watch

_How can someone not remember where they're from but remember their own name? And she said Naruto and Sasuke reminded her of her younger siblings…**Maybe she's just lying to get closer to Sasuke! **No she wasn't looking at him like that… She didn't even call him Sasuke-kun! **Maybe…besides she's too old for Sasuke! **Oh No what if Sasuke likes older women! I mean he blushed earlier didn't he! **Shannaro! We won't lose to her or Ino-pig!!**_

Naruto's Watch

_I really hope that Arisa gets better. She's really nice and she didn't get mad at me or look down on me. She reminds me of Iruka-sensei. Maybe she won't mind being friends? I wonder why someone would try to attack her…_

Kakashi's Watch

_Hmm, its going to take us a bit longer to get to Konoha with an injured person with us. More dangerous too, those cuts were strange too. Some of them looked like the skin had been sheared off. At least her memory seemed to be improving as she talked. Maybe she will have remembered something about how se was attacked by the time we reach Konoha. The shock should have worn off by then._

Sasuke's Watch

_I can't be getting attached to people like this. I need to get stronger so I can avenge my clan's deaths. Attachments will only make me weaker, make it harder for me to accomplish my goal._

_I wonder what she would say if I was to tell her my goal. Hmpf, she'd probably try to talk me out of it she doesn't seem like the type to agree with this sort of thing. Wait, why do I care what her reaction would be? Although its not a bad idea. If she starts getting too close that's what I'll do._

Author Note: This is my first story and I am by no means an accomplished writer so CONSTRUCTIVE critism and suggestions are welcome. I have a general idea of where I want this story to go but I welcome any ideas you may have that you want to share. I'm not sure if there will be any slash or fluff it will depend on what I feel like doing and how well it turns out when I write it. I promise though I won't put it in if it isn't at least somewhat well done, feel free to flame me later if I do. Anyway please review! I promise next time you will all get to meet my disfunctional muses.


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